Residential window film installations present challenges all their own on the technical side. But there is one element to residential jobs that will make or break the job’s outcome every time, and it has nothing to do with film or how it’s installed. That element is the way your techs act in the customer’s home, and how the homeowner perceives them.
Think of it this way: your installers can do the best, fastest, most efficient job of applying the product, and still annoy your customer, while tarnishing your company’s reputation at the same time. How does this happen?
By being careless and forgetting that a man’s home – and often even more so, a woman’s – is their castle. Your techs can alienate a customer in a number of ways, often times without even knowing they’re doing it. Crass language. Insensitivity to a customer’s requests about working in particular areas (bedrooms and bathrooms are typical hot spots). A trail of dirt and debris left behind after the completion of the job.
When your techs enter a customer’s home, they need to be aware that this environment is totally different from your industrial or commercial projects – even a lavish, well-appointed office. Here are just a few tips for you to pass on to your techs on how to make friends of homeowners, and represent your company the way you like on residential jobs.
Respect the customer’s time. People are busy, and many work at home. Have your techs on the job at the appointed time. Fifteen minutes early, especially first thing in the morning, can be as bad as a half-hour late. If the tech beats traffic and arrives early, have him wait in his vehicle to go to the front door at the proper time. A customer doesn’t want to hear his doorbell ring when he’s toweling off after a shower; nor does he want to leave his conference call to let your people in because they’re late.
Respect the customer’s property. Most times, this simply means having your techs be neat and clean – fanatically so. Shoe covers are a must, even if the ground outside is bone-dry and free of mud. For a clever way to get your techs on board with using shoe covers, check out this former contractor’s advice
Put a small shop vac, a broom, and a dustpan on your tech’s vehicles, and insist that they use these tools, even when it looks to them that there’s nothing to clean up. Seeing your employee in shoe covers sprucing up the work area is the kind of detail customers remember, and it will earn you future referrals.
Respect the customer’s wishes. Your techs are human, and some customers can be overly frustrating, demanding, or even rude. It’s inevitable that some friction will result from time to time, and you need to coach your techs on how to handle it. “Our customers are the reason we have a job” is a drum you want to beat continuously. The techs are on the project to satisfy the customer, not themselves or even you! If Mrs. Homeowner wants them to start in this room instead of that one, even if it’s faster, better or easier to start where the tech wants to start, there’s no question who wins this one. To borrow from Dale Carnegie, the techs are on the job to win friends and influence people first, and to install window film second.
